Kerry Nettle (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Democratic governments want to hear all the different voices in the community. They want to hear from people. They want to hear a diversity of views and perspectives on issues. Anyone knows that, in making a decision, hearing the views of a range of different people allows one to make a better decision. Our current committee structure allows us—allows the parliament, allows the government—to have not just government chairs but chairs from other parties that can drive a discussion in a different direction, put forward a different perspective and be used to inform and assist the government in making the very best decisions for the whole community. The path that the government wants to take us down is going to narrow the voices that we hear from and narrow those opportunities.

Other senators have spoken about the importance of getting out and hearing from a whole range of different people across the country, inviting different witnesses from different places. If we narrow the perspective of what our committees do, we will not have those same opportunities. We already see—and lots of us have seen it here—legislation being rushed through the parliament. In particular, legislation committees are given very short time frames for making decisions. There is a push to get legislation straight through without the opportunity for review and scrutiny. I can think of a number of pieces of legislation recently—terrorism, health legislation that I have been involved in—where there has been an absolute rush to get them through. If we do not have a diversity of voices being heard in those committees and in the committee process, we will not have the same capacity to ensure that full and proper decisions are made. When the government has a majority in both chambers but particularly in the Senate, it is important that the different voices are heard. The committee process, as it exists, is an opportunity for that to happen.

The current references committee process also allows us to look at government accountability—issues that the government may choose not to shine the spotlight on; the way in which the government is carrying out particular processes—including different types of scandals and transparency issues. We will not have the same capacity to do that with the new proposals. This move is designed to narrow the range of voices that are heard from, narrow the range of members of the community who the government listens to and narrow the range of those people who are able to lead and drive those discussions, and to simply knock out voices, positions and opportunities to be heard by the government of the day. The government of the day will suffer as a result, because there will not be that same diversity of people, speaking on issues, that we see in our current committee system. These changes will be to the government’s own detriment because they will limit the range of people they hear from and the opportunity for people in the community to be involved in the parliamentary process, the democratic process, such as through writing submissions to committees. That opportunity is being narrowed because of this proposal.

The Greens want a diversity of voices represented and heard as they are in our existing committee process. We do not support the changes, because we want to celebrate the different views. We recognise that governments are able to make better decisions when they hear that full diversity of views. When the government has control in the Senate, it is even more important that that diversity is represented.